Hillary Dawn
by PonderingChibi
Summary: Hillary Dawn is a Doctor Who fangirl in a normal world... until she stumbles upon the TARDIS, complete with Doctor and a promise of all of space and time at her fingertips.
1. The TARDIS

There it was, the thing I had dreamed of for what seemed a lifetime. Everything felt so surreal. I took my first step toward it. It seemed to be the center of the universe, as if everything in the world was spinning around it. Nothing else in the world had ever seemed so important to me as this moment.

I reached my hand out. A second of hesitation caused me to jump as the tip of my finger brushed across the blue paint. It felt exactly like wood, but I knew that wasn't what it really was. As I circled the large object my hand touched the delicate metal handle.

Would it open? I felt so many things. Was I dreaming? Was I happy? Was I afraid to open it? My finger curled around the handle, but I couldn't pull. A million thoughts ran through my head. What if it's just a cosplayer prop? What if it's a real police box? What if it's a prank? What if I'm making a fool of myself? What if someone's watching? What I am dreaming? What if none of this is real? …What if it is real? What if this moment will change my life forever? What if all this time, this is what was supposed to happen? On this day, at this second, what if I'm meant to walk into the real TARDIS? What if it's locked? What if the Doctor is running around in this very town where I live? What if he's inside the TARDIS? Then a couple of my previous questions reoccurred. What if this is a hoax? What'll I do If I open it and nothing's on the inside?

I took a deep breath and tightened my grasp on the door handle. I lowered my head and pushed. Ca-chink. Oh. It is locked. I gave quick look around to check for an unwanted audience, then tried the door again. Nothing. I place my ear on the door, and at that second my heart skipped a beat. A mechanical whirring was on the inside. I went into a frenzy and yanked on the door. My feet paced in front of the door before my body could react. "calm down, Hillary. Calm Down." I stopped and stared at the odd blue doors. I reached out a hand and knocked. I held my breath.

Footsteps approached the door from the inside.

"Hello?" I knocked again.

"Hello?" A familiar voice replied.

I froze. Oh my gosh. This was real. I was normally and extremely shy person but something so unreal seemed to have broken my shell of comfort. "…Doctor?"

"… You know me?" The voice replied.

"Oh my gosh!" I screamed.

"Are you alright?" He opened the door of the TARDIS, revealing himself to be the man I had seen on television so many times before. A tall, thin man wearing a brown, pinstriped suit partially hidden behind a very large tan trench coat. He wore large squared glasses, the eyes behind them a deep brown. The features I had always found defining about him shone like they never had before. His hair was done up into a spike over his forehead. He didn't always wear it like this, but it was my favorite hairdo of his, and here it was right in front of me. I noted his sideburns, as glorious as ever. His eyes flicking around, observing my body. His lips forming a confused frown as he looked me over. He cleared his throat. "Ahem. I said, are you alright?"

I screamed. Not on purpose, the situation was just a bit overwhelming. "Yes! Yes I'm fine!" My heart slammed around inside my rib cage as if screaming at me to let it out.

"Urm… Uh" He scratched the back of his neck. "Alright…" He gave me another scan with his eyes. "If your sure." He started to retreat back into the TARDIS before I grabbed his tie, pulling him to a halt. "… Do you need something?"

"Oh. My. Gosh."

"Pardon me?"

"Oh. My. Gosh." I repeated.

"I- I'm sorry, is there something I'm missing?" He avoided looking into my unintentionally violent stare.

"Y-y-y…" I stammered. "YOU'RE THE DOCTOR."

"No, no, I didn't miss that. I know I'm the Doctor. And you are..?"

My eyes followed his tie down to my hands and back up to his face. "You're the Doctor!" I yelled, unable to control my own volume.

"U-um. Have we met? See, things don't happen to me quite in the right order, I may not have met you ye-"

"N-no." I gained a small amount of control and let him go. "I just…"

"Then… you've heard of me?" He gave the area around us a look down as if it were a foreign planet. Well. In a way it was, but not to the Doctor, right?

"Yes. No." I shook my head. "Sort of." It was then that it occurred to me. If THIS was the real Doctor… Then who was David Tennant? Was he just a look alike? Wait, I'd SEEN behind the scenes specials of Doctor Who, I'd seen David talking about his role as the Doctor. So who was this?! "Are you David Tennant?"

"No… I thought you said you knew I was the Doctor."

"I-I know. But- the Doctor is David Tennant." I could see so many thoughts rushing through his head; most likely ideas and theories on what the heck I was talking about. I shook my head. "Come with me."

"I- I really can't. I've only got a little bit of time until the TARDIS powers off-"

"Just come with me, it'll only take a second!" I grabbed his arm and ran towards my house.

I could've never been so happy to choose to go on a walk. Normally, especially when I'm home alone, I would never ever go outside by choice. I usually try to stay inside, maintain my pale skin, draw, maybe play some video games, and most of all, watch Doctor Who. But no, today I had the weirdest instinct to take a walk. Even if this was only an actor, I was still meeting one of my top heroes, David Tennant, the tenth Doctor of the best show in the world, Doctor Who. This was the peak of my life, I thought. It could never in a million years get any better than this. And I was right, in a million years… my life would get even better.

The Doctor flipped over the DVD case in his hands, carefully reading the back. "Wellp, that's me alright." He took his glasses off, and looked at me. "Or is it?"

"How should I know?"

He paused and gave me an odd look. "You do know that wasn't an actual question."

"Well, how was I supposed to know?" I was already feeling incredibly stupid, them my mouth ran off and made that comeback without a brain controlling it.

He stared at me, as if searching for some alien reason for my stupidity, but he wouldn't find it. I was just plain old, every day, earthly stupid. I turned my head away from him, feeling my face get very hot.

"So what do you make of it?" I questioned.

"It may actually be a very simple answer. You see, I'm from a different reality than this universe," He gave a quick glance around the room. "Everything could be different here. There are still questions I'd like answered, but I don't have time for that, I have to be going. The TARDIS only has a couple more minutes of energy before it's power dies." He turned to leave, but I grabbed his tie again. I really needed to stop doing that.

"Wait!" I swallowed hard and mustered up a quick burst of courage. "Take me with you!"

He took his glasses off and looked at me carefully. "I can't, I really can't."

"why not?"

"This is a different reality, I don't know anything about this place. For all I know, taking you could ruin a fixed point in time here, ripping a whole through the universe."

"But I do know about this universe! I'll never amount to anything here. Please. Ever since I first watch this DVD! Ever since I watched this I wanted you to come! I wanted to believe that you were real, even though all common sense told me you were just an actor on a set! It's like I knew that all this would happen!"

He rubbed his eyes. "Listen, if I take you, you can never come back, there's not enough time for you to think this through properly. I won't just swoop in and take you out of an entire reality. I have no reason to take you-"

"You have no reason not to!"

"I don't know who you are."

My fingers shook as my emotions took control. "Ever since I watched Doctor Who, I knew! I knew if you ever, ever came I would go with you in a heartbeat! I HAVE thought it through!"

"I don't even know if that DVD has the same events! Just because I appear to be this guy, doesn't mean it'll be anything like it really is."

"You're the Doctor. You're a Time Lord. You're the Last of the Time Lords. You're 900 something- depends on where in the series you are- years old. You have two hearts. You survived the Time War. You're biggest enemy is the Daleks, who somehow keep popping up all over in your life in huge armies, even though they supposedly died out with the Time Lords in the Time War. Listen, listen, I can even name off some of your companions you've had! Um, um." I quickly ran through all the companions I could think of at the moment. "There, there was… Jo, Harry, Sara Jane, Tegan, umm… Oh, Romana, K9... Ace… I mean, I know there's a ton more, I haven't watched a ton of Classic Who, though." I could tell he was quite flabbergasted at my ranting as if one word was his deepest secret and the next was a child's made-up language. "Oh, and of course there's Rose, and-" He glared into my eyes and his jaw tensed at the mention of Rose. "Wait," I continued. "You're the Tenth Doctor… Which means you've met Rose already. But, if you're not with her now…" His eyes flicked between my own. "Did she already…?"

He lowered his head. "Ok, so maybe this television show is right about everything… but how?" He started to pace. "YES! NO! Agh, the TARDIS!" He yelled. "It's about to run out of power any second!" He yanked his tie out of my grip and shot out the door.

"No, come back!" I cried. "Take me with you! I'm sure I want to come!" I ran out behind him, struggling to keep up. "I'm positive! 100% positive!" I called, swinging my arms as if to pull myself forwards. "Please! I won't blame you if I change my mind!"

He turned his head, still running top speed. "I can't just take every little girl who asks to come!"

"Isn't that more or less how you picked up all your other companions?" I huffed.

He gave me an irritated look as he reached the TARDIS. He quickly pulled open the doors and ran inside, me a couple feet behind him. I quickly pushed the door shut behind myself and looked around. The TARDIS. The actual TARDIS. The infinite ship inside of room hardly big enough for two people. I swallowed my comments for later as the Doctor began to speak.

"Out." He stated firmly as he tinkered with odd buttons and dials on the TARDIS' console.

"Make me." He glanced at me angrily.

"I don't have time for this, I have to leave NOW."

"Well, it looks to me like you only have time to either get the TARDIS in flight and escape this reality or come over here and make me get out. Take your pick." I felt so extremely out of character, but I guess that happens when a TARDIS lands in your backyard.

He gave me a calculating stare, then reluctantly pulled a lever, sending the TARDIS into flight. It was really happening. Doctor Who was all real and I was on board the TARDIS in flight, no chance of ever returning home.

"I'm going to at least need your name." He said.

I smiled. "Hillary. Hillary Dawn."

He smiled back. "Nice to meet you, Hillary Dawn. I'm the Doctor."


	2. Taking it in

A single drop of water floated through outer space. My first gift to the infinite universe, a salty droplet from my eye. I always knew being in space was amazing, and I always knew that astronauts said that you could never understand just how beautiful it was until you see it, but I guess it never clicked to me what the universe really is. It really is infinite. You picture space as black with stars and planets, but it's so much more than that. This black isn't black; It's space itself. Trillions of light-years, uncountable miles, of nothing. I could see forever itself. Boulders called planets, bigger than you could ever imagine simply floating through midair like bubbles. You could never make it to everywhere on a single planet in a lifetime, and yet, here were tons of them, just floating before my eyes like a dream.

I stood up from sitting in the doorway of the TARDIS, just to fall back over again, lost in a sea of emotions. My head was spinning in circles. I felt as if my brain was becoming ten times it's original size, everything becoming so clear that my eyes welled with tears, and I couldn't see anymore. I reached my arm up, and felt the Doctor's gentle grip pull me to my feet. I collapsed into his chest, still unable to stand. I felt his hand rub my back. I couldn't see his face. I thought he must've been pitying me. This is how he lives every day of his life. I thought I could be a worthy companion and here I was sobbing like a baby at just a glimpse of the Doctor's backyard.

"I'm sorry." I said, trying not to snort as I attempted to compose myself. I pushed myself back onto my own two feet and smiled, tears still streaming down my cheeks. He smiled back at me. I would've expected a smile of pity, a smile to comfort a crying infant, but this smile was different. His smile was of understanding, a smile of warmth, as if I made him feel like he was reliving his life as a child. A smile of envy, like I had something he could never have again.

"Isn't it brilliant?" He said quietly, after a moment of silence. I nodded, unable to do much else.

"I don't regret coming." I finally cleared up. "It's just… So amazing, I guess it took me by surprise."

"Yeah," He said, his accent twisting the word into multiple syllables. "I understand." He twisted a knob on the control panel. "Well then. Looks like your stuck with me, where do you want to go?"

"Ah- I've thought this one through before. How can you ask earthlings where they want to go when we have no idea what's even out there?"

He shrugged. "Just about everything is out there, how am I supposed to give you a list options, hm?"

"Hm." I nodded in agreement. After thinking a moment I looked up again. "Well, you of all people should know I'll be absolutely fascinated wherever you take me." He nodded, obviously still chilled by my apparent knowledge of the majority of his life.

"Well then, supposing it existed, if you could go anywhere you could imagine, where would it be?" He leaned forward, seeming to ignore his own questions, hidden behind his pupils.

I thought about it for a long while. "First, I'd like to at least spend some time on the TARDIS." I said, gesturing to the ship around us.

He gave a quick look around the closest thing to home he had had in centuries and shrugged. "Alright then." He looked to the side and gave a contemplating nod.

"Is something wrong with that?"

"No, no, not at all." He shook his head. "Most people aren't quite so thrilled by the TARDIS, what with the temptation of all of space and time on there hands. Usually it's just a 'It's bigger on the inside' then off we go." He said, motioning his hand like an airplane into the distance.

"It's smaller on the outside." I giggled.

He looked at me. "What?"

"No, sorry, I stole that one from Clara." I covered my mouth.

"Clara?"

"Nothing. Nothing… Nothing at all." I said, distracting myself by looking at buttons.

He walked over to me and put himself in between me and the console. "Who's Clara?"

I gave him a look. I'm not sure what it came out as, but I meant it to be a little sassy. His face told me it looked otherwise. "Spoilers. Oh, that one's River's. Dangit, Shut up." I hit my forehead. Realizing how stupid I looked, I replied to his bewildered frown with an innocent smile. "Hello~" I chirped.

"River."

"Oh, yeah, you've met her, haven't you-" He cut me off by hitting his palm onto the TARDIS control panel.

"This television show of yours." He said, taking a step closer to me. "How far, exactly, does it go?"

I frowned. "I said already. Spoilers."

"Tell me." He said looming over me.

I backed up to the wall, avoiding eye contact.

"Hillary…"

"I-… I…" My shoulders sank. "I know how you die." At that, he quickly backed away from me, seeming to regret letting his curiosity get the better of him.

"I see." He said, walking away. After about five seconds, he spun back around. "But, we don't know how correct the details of this show are. You only said basic information about me. So then! Let's get dirty shall we?"

"Alright then. Where do we wanna start?"

"You tell me." He paced in front of me, a finger gently tapping his lips. "Get down to details, tell me something specific that happened in chronological order."

I thought about it. "Well, what was the last thing that happened to you? So I don't spoil things."

His face darkened. "You said it already. Me and Rose, we got" He swallowed hard. "separated." He shook the thought out of his head. "Then I met this girl. Donna, her name was. We had a little bit of an adventure, and well, here I am."

"Oh yes! I love Donna!" I hit my head again. "No! Spoilers! Agh! Not that that was a spoiler or anything! It wasn't- I mean, Donna may or may not come back, I mean-" I bit my tongue and held my lips shut as to not make a further mess of myself. Once I had gained control of my words once again, I took in a breath and started again. "Ok. How abooouuut… The episode with the drawings?" I needed to stop referring to his life events like a geek. These weren't episodes anymore. These were the events of a real live person's past. Events that some of which permanently scarred him.

"And which one is that?"

"Oh, um, sorry. This one should be pretty recent for you: You and Rose went to the 2012 Olympics. There was that little baby alien that usually travels in families of billions, and they create little imaginary worlds to play in. But it got separated from the rest, and attracted to heat, crash-landed into the fresh-paved tar…" As my story continued, he seemed more and more disturbed, but also more and more open and willing to discuss what was going on.

"So what do you make of it, seeing that all the details are right?" I asked, after finishing my recollections.

"I'm not sure." He said. "It would be possible that this David Tennant was the other reality version of myself, but there are actors identical in every way to every one of my previous regenerations."

"So how's it possible?"

"It's not. Not in this world, anyway." He mused. "But a different dimension is it's own reality. I guess that's just how it is in your reality."

I smiled. "Well, I like this one better. Oh, and… How did you even get into my reality in the first place? It seemed to me a lot like the way you had to get out of the dimension that Rose is in the first time you went there. When you left Mickey and stuff. How you had to give the TARDIS piece ten years of your life to recharge it, then only got five minutes of power to get out."

"Oddly enough… that is exactly how I got there this time as well."

"But I thought that was like a million to one chance that you randomly fell through the walls of reality."

"Well, I dunno. It happened again, though. I'm starting to question how legitimate these stats I'm always bringing up are, being that almost every single event of unreal odds has happened to me."

"I guess you're just a one in a million guy." I elbowed him, wiggling my eyebrows. He ignored me, flipping a switch or two on the control panel again.

The minutes ticked by, and the Doctor gave me frequent glances as I sat there, unable to fully absorb everything that had happened. The more I accepted it, the harder it was to look at his face, knowing that all the episodes I had watched were his actual life. His pain that enjoyed so much now made me feel sick, because I saw it in his eyes. In this real person's eyes. The torment he had suffered in the Time war was real. And I had watched his life while eating popcorn, and pausing and playing it like it didn't matter. Without him ever knowing I was watching. Even though the series was acted by David, in a way, he was still the same guy, and somehow, all the events were still correct.

The Doctor's foot tapped rapidly, as by now an hour must've passed. I shook my head, snapping myself back into reality; A new reality, but reality nonetheless. "I'm sorry." I said. That I had seen, none of his other companions had reacted anything like this. I guess I was more of a baby than I thought.

"It's a lot to take in, isn't it?" He said.

"Yeah it is."

"I like seeing people like you. You remind me how brilliant the universe is. I'm so used to it, on my own it seems so ordinary. But you, Hillary, you can see the wonder in it all. And that makes me happy."

I smiled. "Well, I'm glad my worthlessness can be of assistance. I'll gape at things as much as you like."

I forgot most of what we talked about for the next few hours. Simple things, things that didn't matter. Things I never imagined I would be saying to the Doctor. Before I knew it, it had gotten quite late. Or was it late where we were? Wherever we were. But my internal clock said it was high time I caught some Zs.

Before I could say anything, the Doctor quickly bounced up, seeming to notice my sudden drowsiness.

"What was I saying…?" I moaned, trying to keep the conversation alive. It crossed my mind that I couldn't remember what the conversation was, but why did that matter?

"Uh-mm" He coughed, "The, uh, bedrooms are down that hall." He gestured with his thumb. "You probably need some sleep."

"What? No… no…" I said in denial, even though I knew full well how right he was.

He stared at me, unconvinced. "The sheets are fresh. You look awfully tired. You're starting to-" He quickly jumped towards me and caught me before I toppled onto the ground.

"No, no. I don't need to yet, I'm not that tired." Despite my resistance, I cooperated with his guidance easily, leading my through the halls of the TARDIS to a futuristic white bedroom. It was very clean, but not decorated in the slightest. There was a metal-framed bed, with white sheets and a white pillow. And there was a narrow white door leading into a bathroom, matching the bedroom in an all-pure-white fashion.

"Goodnight, Hillary." Said the Doctor as I realized I had planted myself on the bed in a horizontal position.

"Goodnight, Doctor."

"See you in the morning."

"Sweet dreams."

The lights flicked off.


	3. Opening the Door

My eyes slowly peeled open, wincing in preparation for the sun to sting them, but no sun came. I sat up, rubbing my eyes and looked around. Nothing but white. For a moment my heart stopped, until all the memories of yesterday came flooding back.

"Doctor!?" I shouted. Still in my clothes and shoes from yesterday, I jumped out of the bed and ran down the hall. Wait. This was the direction we came from last night, wasn't it? I continued running and came to a fork in the hall. In a rush of adrenalin, I took the left path, shuffling my feet as quickly as I could.

"Hillary?" I heard a voice echoing through the TARDIS, but I couldn't tell which way it was coming from. I quickened my pace, shooting down the halls, turning at random when given the option. I didn't know why, but being half awake in unfamiliar territory in an unfamiliar universe was quite frightening, and being frightened tends to make you do odd things.

"Hillary, where are you? Come back!" The Doctor's voice rang out again.

"Where are you?" I called.

"Just… just stop! Don't go anywhere! I'll come and find you!"

Good idea, I thought. That's what you're supposed to do when you get lost, right? Just sit there and wait. Despite my good intentions, my feet kept moving, slower now, but still wandering aimlessly through the endless abyss called the TARDIS.

Everything was quiet, except for an occasional creak, as if the walls were shifting. Judging from what I'd seen on Doctor Who, they very well could be. A shiver ran down my spine as I continued to walk. What if the TARDIS didn't like me? I brushed my hand along the wall as I walked. "Hey, girl." I said quietly. "If you could help me find my way back to the console… that would be great." I said, stroking a metal beam. The TARDIS made a soft creaking sound.

I don't know if it was the TARDIS, or just luck that helped me, but within the next minute I had found my way back to the main room. The Doctor had left, no doubt into the halls to find me.

I circled the console, inspecting the control panels, but never pushing buttons in fear of sending the TARDIS into flight, or even something more dangerous. Best leave that stuff alone.

"Hillary?" Said the Doctor as he stumbled into the room. "How did you get in here?" He looked around.

"I don't know. I got lost in the halls, but eventually I found my way here."

"The TARDIS let you back in?" A wide grin spread across his face. "Good girl!" He said, looking around at his pride and joy. He turned back to me. "She doesn't usually like new companions." A spark of joy flickered in me as he said that last word.

"Doctor…"

"…Yes?" He was a bit caught off guard by my sudden solemn tone.

I chose my words as carefully as I could, as to not strike a chord I didn't mean to touch. "I know how you… are sad that the people you meet… I mean… how you can never stay with them as long as you want to." I tried to read his face as best I could. "I just… I have nowhere to go back to. Y'know… 'cause we can't go back to my universe. What I'm trying to say is... I'll stay with you."

The Doctor smiled. It hurt me inside, because I knew it wasn't a real smile. It was a mask for all the pain I had brought up. "Most of them say that, Hillary. They don't always choose to go." His tone made me feel as if I was a child, and he my parent. "They all say…" He swallowed hard. "They all say they'll be with me forever."

A deadly silence fell over us.

later

"Well, Hillary." The Doctor said. "Since you can't make up your mind on where to go, I'm going to surprise you." He crossed his arms.

"Ok!" I chirped pleasantly.

He gave me a look that only companions had ever gotten, which made me squee a little inside. He jumped around the understaffed console, pushing buttons, twisting levers and spinning doodads. I tiptoed around, following his every move, observing the actual TARDIS in actual flight. My heart pounded through my throat. It was then that I realized I wasn't sure I could handle more excitement. But we had only just begun.

I froze as the whirring of the phone box started. The engine screeched as the ground suddenly felt unstable. The Doctor paused for a moment and looked at me, no doubt musing at how close my jaw was to the floor. I shook my head in attempt to shut my mouth, but it remained a crack open as I felt an odd sensation. I was really going through time. I was traveling through space faster than light!

I crossed the floor, slightly wobbling, and found myself a seat. Me and the Doctor exchanged glances before the sounds of the ship eventually died down.

"Ready?" He smirked.

I stood up to head for the door, but dropped back down. "No." I gasped.

He chuckled and reached out his hand as support. I delicately placed my own into his, and pulled myself up. I could tell how amused he was by me by the way his shining eyes ran up and down my body, carefully observing my expressions.

I wobbled my way to the door, with a mixture of happiness, exhaustion, and impending doom.

"After you." He said, stepping away from the door to make room for me.

I touched my fingers to the door, took a deep breathe, and pressed it open to see my first alien destination.


	4. Eryll

My foot crunched down in the gravel-like ground in front of me. The view outside the TARDIS door was heart-stopping. My hand lifted to my lips as I struggled for each breath.

The ground looked like fish aquarium gravel. The colors of the delicate rocks ranged from sea blue to magenta, and included every color in between. Small transparent plants sprouted everywhere, most with tints of blue, purple, or pink.

Not very far from where I stood, there was a small pool of water. Though I wasn't next to it, I could see from where I was that the water was crystal clear. Nothing floated inside of it, no ripples broke it's surface, in fact if I hadn't seen a petal from one of the flowers that grew next to the pond floating there, I wouldn't have realized the water was anything but air.

The horizon line was completely flat. Nothing but gravel and little plants for as far as I could see. A huge sun was slowly rising up- less than half of it was above the horizon. But the rays of light it gave off glistened off the pebbles, and resonated through the translucent plant life.

"It's beautiful." I gasped.

"Eryll." He whispered. "By far among the most peaceful planets around." He gave a quick shrug. "Of course, that's because there's only one species that lives here, and they're not among the most intelligent creatures. More like dogs." As if on queue, a small patch of gravel in front of me began to shift. A small lump formed before a small face popped out and shook the gravel off of itself.

"Yip yip!" It squeaked. It's voice was very high-pitched and friendly. It pulled itself the rest of the way out of the ground and ran a quick circle around my legs. "Yip yip!" It squeaked again.

The little critter was blue, somewhat resembling a fennec fox, except it had no nose, rather it had two nostrils in it's forehead. It had no hair, though I wouldn't really say it was bald, either. It's skin was soft and squishy- the texture seemed halfway between JELL-O and a marshmallow. Either way, it looked slightly edible. In some places where a peak of fur would normally bed, a small spike of it's gelatinous skin would be there instead.

The Doctor smiled as the happy thing cocked it's head, wriggling with excitement. "Eryllians." He informed me. "Very friendly and very playful." He knelt down to pet the alien.

It jumped back, then cautiously resumed its position next to the Doctor, slightly more wary than before. It sniffed his outstretched hand, eyes locked onto the other's. It sniffed, its whole muzzle rippling from the movement.

The Doctor reached into his pocket with his free hand and pulled out a small, round, red object. It must be some type of berry, I supposed. It certainly looked like one.

Sure enough, the Doctor held it out to the little animal, who quickly snatched it away and began munching on it.

"Watch." The Doctor said mischievously.

As the Eryllian swallowed, I realized I could see the shadow of the chewed food slowly slide down its throat and settle in its stomach.

"Whoa!" I exclaimed, giving the Doctor a quick unbelieving glance.

It looked up at me, ears pointed forward. It made a quiet chirping sound and took a small step in my direction. I knelt down to welcome it. Silently it took another step and sat down about a foot in front of me.

"Hi there." I smiled. It's tail flicked to the side. I reached out a cautious hand in an attempt to pet it. Gently it set its chin into palm and flicked its tail from side to side. My heart skipped a beat and my spun. How was this thing so cute?! I scratched its chin, causing its rear left foot to kick uncontrollably.

"Don't scratch too hard." My companion warned. "It's skin is very soft and delicate, and Eryllians don't heal very well. They've never had to protect themselves from anything."

"What do they eat?" I asked. Maybe the plants, I thought. There wasn't much of anything else around.

"The gravel." The Doctor replied. "And when they finally die of old age, their body hardens and breaks apart to create more."

I quickly stood up to avoid touching the gravel as much as possible. "So all of this is dead Eryllians?!" I squeaked.

The Doctor looked at the ground and thought for a moment. "Yeah, most of this has probably been through an Eryllian at some point by now. It didn't start like that though." He paused. "But Eryllian cubs grow out of this stuff, too."

"Really?" I turned to him. "How?"

"You see those clear plants? They're baby Eryllians. They slowly liquefy and absorb the gravel around them Until they shape into a full-grown Eryllian."

I turned back to the little creature. "That's kind of cool." I crouched down again and resumed petting its smooth skin, causing the rest of it to jiggle. It turned it's head, allowing me to itch behind it's ear. "So this whole planet is made out of all the same stuff?"

"Mostly." He answered, nodding. "There's not a lot to do here, but it's so beautiful." He said, gesturing at the endless gravel and rising sun.

"It really is." I stared into the distance, soaking it all in, forgetting that I was still petting the little Eryllian. I realized this once again when it got tired of being scratched it the same spot and gave me a little nip. "Ouch." I murmured, pulling my hand away.

The Doctor looked down at me, seeming in thought for a few moments. "Had enough fun yet?"

I looked at him, suddenly confused. All the excitement was making me tired faster than normal, but no way was I giving this experience up to take a nap. I shook my head quietly and went back to playing with the Eryllian. "This is really fun." I explained. "It feels like a dream. I mean… I can't really be here with a fictional character on an alien planet, playing with a real alien, can I?"

He drew back a little bit, probably offended by my comment about his being fictional. "Hillary, this is real. You're in a different universe now. You'll never go home again."

Never go home again. Yesterday, this statement seemed like a wonderful idea. Not that I didn't like life at home -or on earth for that matter- it's just that a fantasy life seemed so much better. Now the reality of never going home hit me hard. Why hadn't I thought longer about it? Right. The Doctor had only had a few minutes. But had I made the right choice? I knew I was going to start missing my family pretty badly soon, but had I been given another chance, I very well might've picked the Doctor again. I rubbed my scalp in frustration, lost in my world of thoughts and confusion.

What was my mom going to think? She'd be devastated if I went missing. She probably IS devastated, I thought. She'll think she's done something wrong! She'll think I ran away because I was mad at her! She'll never forgive herself!

A shadow lowered over the Doctor's eyes as his head tilted down. "I shouldn't have let you come." It was then that I realized tears were streaming down my cheeks. I heard a spark of anger in the Time Lord's voice. "How could I have been so irresponsible. Taking a sixteen year old a girl away from her family!? What an idiot!" He pressed his hands against his temples and began to pace.

"No." I sobbed. "I told you I wanted to come. I was trying not to give you an option."

"But I'm better than that!" He spat. "Stupid!" He hissed through his teeth. I began to sob more, choking on every breath.

"I'm sorry!" I cried.

He stopped walking and turned to me, suddenly softening. He knelt down to me and looked me in the eye like a mother to a child. "No, Hillary, listen to me." He liften my chin to look at him. "None of this is your fault. I'll make this up to you, I promise."

I pulled away, rising to my feet quicker than I meant to, causing myself to stumble before getting completely upright. "I'm not a kid." I murmured, wiping the water from my eyes. "I'm fine. I chose to come and I'm going to stick with it." I turned away so he wouldn't see that tears were still rolling down my face. "Who…" I sniffed. "Who cares… if I'll never… see my family?… This is… this is better than home."

The Eryllian, still in front of me, placed its two front paws on one of my feet, and tipped it's head. It whimpered and shifted its weight, trying to attract my attention.

I looked down at it and sniffed.

"Yip yip!" It squeaked. I smiled a little bit, my eyes slowly drying. I bent down and held out my arms, allowing it to climb into my grasp.

"I'm ok." I insisted to the critter, though I was probably trying convince the Doctor, or maybe even myself.

A silence stretched out for an awkwardly long amount of time.

Finally the Doctor sighed. "Where do you want to go? To make you feel better?" His voice sounded exhausted. In his mind he had made an unfixable mistake, and now he had to make the best of it.

I thought. "Can… Can we maybe go to Earth? For just a little while?"

He smiled. "Absolutely."

I set the Eryllian down and headed for the TARDIS, only to be tripped by the little thing yanking on the heel of my shoe. When I stopped and turned around, it folded it's ears back and whimpered, its tail swishing from side to side.

"It's never seen a human before." The Doctor observed. "Looks like you've made a good impression."

I smiled at it, pat it once more, and resumed my short walk to the TARDIS interior, only to be stopped once again. "What?" I said, spinning around.

"Yip yip!" It cried. It then ran ahead of me, prancing along, vibrations shooting through its body every time it hit the ground. It darted into the phone box and turned around. "Yip yip!"

The Doctor smiled. "A VERY good impression. It seems we have another passenger."

"Wha- we're keeping it?" My voice cracked.

"Why not? Though Eryllians are extremely friendly, they don't have families and they don't rely on the company of each other. And this one is extremely fond of you, it would seem. Do you not want it to come?"

"No! No, I do! It's adorable!" A little burst of adrenalin sped my speech. "But my mom would never let me keep an animal that fast!"

"Well it's just one, and they're very easy to keep. They don't eat much, and while in their natural habitat, they only eat the ground, they can really eat just about anything you give them."

"Thank you!" I bounced up and ran into the ship after the Eryllian. "What should I call it?" I paused. "Is it a boy or a girl?"

"The boys are blue and the girls are more pink. The purple ones are much harder to tell, though."

I thought for some time. "I'll name it… Rory." I snickered.

"Rory? That's an interesting name."

"I found it quite fitting." I said, quickly examining the little guy to make sure it went with him well enough.

He stared at it. "How so?"

I suppressed a laugh. "It's nothing." I assured him. "You'll get it some day." The awkwardness of me having seen future events of the Doctor rose up again, and was painfully obvious on his face.

"…Rory it is, then." He added quietly without further question. "Off to Earth, then?" He said as he joined me in his ship.

I picked up Rory and nodded happily.


End file.
